Paessler Enhances Network Monitoring Tool

Traditionally, network management tools have been complex, expensive, and difficult to deploy. Paessler, a German based company, has been one of the suppliers trying to address those limitations and unveiled a new release of its PRTG Network Monitor.The enhancements feature an improved user interface and an expanded reach. The web user interface now supports mini-HTML functions for users connecting on low bandwidth links, such as a mobile system. The product's mapping features have been enhanced and now work with Google Maps. The company has also improved PRTG Network Monitor's notification features, and the network management tool features several new sensor types, including agent-less Linux monitoring. The vendor offers a free iteration of its system and a version that includes ten sensors costs $400.

The Paessler tool is designed to help companies avoid performance bottlenecks, monitor network usage, and minimize downtime. The product runs on a Microsoft Windows-based machine and stores usage information in a database so companies can create reports to view historic trends. PRTG Network Monitor includes more than 80 sensor types for common network services, such as PING, HTTP, SMTP, POP3, and FTP. As soon as outages occur, the software alerts network technician via email, SMS, or pager messages. The company claims that 150,000 administrators rely on PRTG Network Monitor to manage their networks.

In business since 1997, Paessler has carved out a noteworthy niche in the network monitoring space. This market has been changing dramatically recently with the introduction of a variety of new, low cost management tools. It will be interesting to see how the company fares as the market continues to evolve.